A gut check for anyone who's been "thinking about it" for a year

It is Sunday evening, and you have just admitted to a friend that you are "still thinking about it," the same line you used last October. She said nothing. She didn't need to. Twelve months of waiting around is not the same thing as weighing a decision. It's a decision you've made and never said out loud, or one you keep reversing every couple of weeks.

Tonight, then, you take a chance on something you have never tried. You grab a blank page and write down what has actually happened, not how it has made you feel. Your list of reasons has grown longer than you expected.

What's at stake

Lingering in a job for an extra year can cost you more than a year's worth of paychecks. It costs the professional you that recruiters in San Antonio remember, the account you could give of leaving on a high note, and the energy you'd have brought to what comes next. Leaving a year too soon costs you a vesting date, a project you haven't finished, and the chance that the trouble was a rough season rather than a broken job. Both mistakes are real. What separates the two is that only one of them goes unnoticed.

The change

Trusting a hunch means far more than brushing off a fleeting mood. It's a tally. You are no stranger to the danger signals in San Antonio workplaces. You've been talking yourself out of them one at a time, and they are much harder to dismiss when they sit together on a single page. Twelve point toward leaving. Three point toward staying. Keep your tally truthful, since no one else in San Antonio or South Texas will ever look at this page.

Why this extends well beyond your situation

A deloitte 2025 study of 7,500 women in the Alamo City and across Texas, including New Braunfels and Boerne, showed that just 5% expect to stay put with their present employer past the five-year mark. Women aren't failing to commit. They have stopped staying put out of mere routine, and the women who walk away on good terms are the ones who ran the numbers before deciding.

Twelve signals that the moment is ripe

Sign A. Headhunters no longer reach out to you, because you have declined their offers three separate times.

Sign B. You already speak of your work as something that has ended.

Sign C. Your "one more year" has a sequel.

Sign D. The executive who championed your hire has since left the company.

Sign E. Someone drew up the new org chart in a meeting you were never invited to.

Sign F. For over six months, you have been covering a position on an interim footing.

Sign G. Your pay bump only kept up with what things cost in South Texas, but your manager presented it as a generous gift.

Sign H. You practice your arguments for meetings in the shower and still walk away outmaneuvered.

Sign I. Colleagues you mentored in Schertz now report above you, and nobody can say why.

Sign J. You have quit bringing forward suggestions, since you are certain how they will be received.

Sign K. The dread of Monday creeps in by Saturday afternoon.

Sign L. Were this same position offered to you today, you would turn it down.

Three clues that it isn't so

First. The difficulty comes down to one person, and that person can be swapped out.

Second. The recent half-year has been rough, yet the three years before it were rewarding.

Third. Your exhaustion reaches beyond this job, and a genuine two-week break in Seguin, Helotes, or Leon Valley would reveal exactly which one it is.

Making sense of your score

A score of six or higher on the first list with zero on the second points to a clear decision. Scoring two or three on the first list alongside one on the second calls for a talk with your manager, not an exit. Schedule that talk this week and open with: "I would like to remain here and develop my career. What would have to change to make that possible, and what is the deadline?" Whatever she says, or fails to say, belongs on the page as well.

When a friend asks you next October, you will have far more to offer than "still thinking about it." You will have a figure to point to.